Going the Distance: Four Ways to Build a Better Customer Loyalty Program for Your Brand

It’s easy enough for a customer to join your loyalty program, especially when you’re offering an incentive such as discounts. All your customer has to do is give out some basic information, and voila! They’re in the fold, a brand new loyalty member with your company. From there, it’s happily ever after. You offer the perks; they stand solidly by you, bringing you their continued business. Simple. Or is it? In reality, just how many of those customers are act ively participating in your loyalty program? Do you know? Sure, loyalty program memberships are on the rise according to market research company eMarketer, having jumped 25 percent in the space of just two years. However, that figure may be a bit misleading. The truth is that, while loyalty program sign-ups may be more numerous, active participation in such programs is actually in decline. At the time of the study, the average US household had memberships in 29 loyalty programs; yet consumers were only active in 12 of those. That’s just 41 percent. And even that meager figure represents a drop of 2 percentage points per year over each of the preceding four years, according to a study by loyalty-marketing research company COLLOQUY.

When discounts just aren’t enough

So what’s a brand to do? How can you make your loyalty program worth your customer’s while—as well as your own? After all, gaining a new loyalty member doesn’t mean much if your customer isn’t actively participating in your program. Consider this: Does your customer loyalty program offer members anything different from what your competitors are offering? Chances are your program includes discounts. That’s a given. And what customer doesn’t appreciate a good discount? But when every other company out there is providing this staple benefit in comparable amounts, it becomes less and less likely that customers will remain loyal to any one particular brand. Frankly, it’s all too easy for customers to get lost in a sea of loyalty member discounts. They’re everywhere. In fact, just under half of internet users perceive that all rewards programs are alike, according to a 2015 eMarketer survey. The key to success, then, is to differentiate your business from the crowd. If you can offer your customers something unique and valuable beyond the usual discount, chances are they’ll be more likely to stick with your brand. Here’s some inspiration from companies who get it.

Virgin: Reward more purchases with more benefits.

That’s not to say you need to get rid of discounts entirely. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Customers still love a good discount. The goal is to be creative in terms of the loyalty perks you offer. Take the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, for example. As part of its loyalty program, the airline allows members to earn miles and tier points. Members are inducted at the Club Red tier, from which they can move up to Club Silver and then Club Gold. Here, it’s not just a discount. It’s status. And people respond to feeling important, elite. Still, even where the rewards themselves are concerned, Virgin is motivating loyalty customers with some pretty attractive offers. At the Club Red tier, members earn flight miles and receive discounts on rental cars, airport parking, hotels and holiday flights. But as members rise in tiers, they get even more. At the Club Silver tier, members earn 50 percent more points on flights, access to expedited check-in, and priority standby seating. And once they reach the top, Club Gold members receive double miles, priority boarding and access to exclusive clubhouses where they can get a drink or a massage before their flight. Now that’s some serious incentive to keep coming back for more. Discounts are still part of the equation – but they are designed with innovation and personal value in mind, elevating them to more than just savings.

Amazon Prime: Pay upfront and become a VIP.

What if your customers only had to pay a one-time upfront fee to get a year’s worth of substantial benefits? It may not sound like the smartest business idea at first glance. But take a closer look. Amazon Prime users pay a nominal $99 a year to gain free, two-day shipping on millions of products with no minimum purchase. And that’s just one benefit of going Prime. It’s true that Amazon loses $1-2 billion a year on Prime. This comes as no surprise given the incredible value the program offers. But get this: Amazon makes up for its losses in markedly higher transaction frequency. Specifically, Prime members spend an average of $1,500 a year on Amazon.com, compared with $625 spent by non-Prime users, a ccording to a 2015 report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Patagonia: Cater to customer values.

Sometimes, the draw for consumers isn’t saving money or getting a great deal. The eco-friendly outdoor clothing company Patagonia figured this out back in 2011, when it partnered with eBay to launch its Common Threads Initiative: a program that allows customers to resell their used Patagonia clothing via the company’s website. Why is this program important to customers? And how does it benefit Patagonia? The company’s brand embraces environmental and social responsibility, so it was only fitting that they create a platform for essentially recycling old clothing rather than merely throwing it away. The Common Threads Initiative helps Patagonia build a memorable brand and fierce loyalty by offering its customers a cause that aligns with deep personal values. OK, so their customers get to make a little money, too. Everybody wins.

American Airlines: Gamify your loyalty program.

If you’re going to offer your customers a loyalty program, why not make it f un? After all, engagement is key to building a strong relationship with your customer. And what better way to achieve that goal than making a game of it. American Airlines had this very thing in mind when it created its AAdvantage Passport Challenge following its merger with USAirways. The goal: find a new way to engage customers as big changes were underway. Using a custom Facebook application, American Airlines created a virtual passport to increase brand awareness while offering members a chance to earn bonus points. Customers earned these rewards through a variety of game-like activities, from answering trivia questions to tracking travel through a personalized dashboard. In the end, participants earned more than 70 percent more stamps than expected – and the airline saw a ROI of more than 500 percent. The takeaway: people like games.

Stand out from the crowd.

Your approach to your customer loyalty program should align with your overall marketing approach. Effective branding is about standing out, not blending it. Being memorable is key. To this end, keep in mind that loyalty programs are no longer a novelty. That means that yesterday’s strategies won’t work moving forward, so look for ways to rise above the noise, setting yourself apart from the cloying drone of countless other cookie-cutter programs.

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An Oasis of Personality in the Desert of Website Design

It’s a question every business – no matter the industry or niche – must answer: How do you differentiate yourself from the competition? You can try to do it with your products or your prices, but anyone can come along with a similar product or service offering, and fighting a battle based solely on price almost always a losing proposition. Differentiating yourself through the level of customer service you provide is a great idea, but the trick is that you have to draw someone in before you can win them over with your stellar service. So then the question remains: how do you stand apart from the crowd and draw positive attention to your business? The reality is that all of the factors mentioned above – products, prices and client service – do play a role both in how you attract new customers and how you keep your existing customer base loyal. Another differentiator that’s often overlooked, however, is your company’s personality – all of those intangible factors that are encompassed in your brand (think Apple vs. Microsoft) – and your website is the perfect platform to showcase that personality.

Nothing to fear

In the buttoned-up, suit-and-tie corporate world, the idea of showing personality can be a scary proposition, and many companies are afraid to try it for fear of alienating customers. Present a personality that’s too casual and lighthearted, and you risk turning away clients looking for a more serious tone. Present a very conservative, serious face, and you may come across as unfriendly and drive off those seeking a more personal approach. This fear of alienating segments of your potential audience is why many companies seek the safety of the middle ground and institute a neutral, inoffensive design that they believe will appeal to everyone. What this really does, however, is cause both the company and their website to be perceived as unremarkable and unmemorable. By trying to appeal to everyone, they appeal to no one in particular. As scary as it may seem, the risks of letting your company’s personality shine on your website are far outweighed by the benefits of creating a memorable experience for your customers.

Hey – I remember you!

When it comes to growing and promoting your business, blending in is never the right strategy. Make your website look and act just like everyone else’s, and you may not alienate anyone, but you won’t stick out in anyone’s mind, either. Customers (and potential customers) who come to your site visit hundreds of other websites in any given week. The vast majority of them are driven by features and functionality to the point that if you took away the company logo, one would hardly be distinguishable from the next. On the other hand, if your website offers something different and unexpected – whether in its imagery and visual design or in the tone and approach of the content – it will be like an oasis in the desert, a welcome change from the boring and bland. When it’s time to make a purchase decision, who will they remember – the ones that did the same thing as everyone else or the one that marched to their own beat and had a unique voice? Of course, your site and your company need to deliver the services and value that your audience is looking for, but making a powerful first impression upon your visitors and getting them to remember you is step one in winning their business. This approach can also help filter out clients that are right from those that may not be a good fit for your company to work with.

Finding the right fit

Even though your services may be applicable to a large and diverse audience, it’s important to ask yourself what your ideal customer looks like. An ideal customer is one that not only has a need for your products or services but whose preferences for how those products or services are delivered mesh well with your organization. How can you expect to find that right fit if you’re not being “you”? Let’s say your company is quirky and fun. If you do not embrace this personality in your marketing and on your website, you may appeal to a broader audience, but you will also attract potential clients who ultimately do not want to work with a company like yours. In those cases, you will either lose their business when they realize you are not the type of organization they are seeking, or even worse, they will continue on with you but the relationship will be strained because your company is trying to be something they are not. Instead of hoping to court everyone, try being yourself to attract customers that want to work with a company like yours. In the end, those engagements will be better suited, and often more profitable, for all parties involved.

Don't forget your internal audience

Maintaining a consistent personality between your website and how the company itself actually operates will also benefit your internal audience – that is, your employees. By being true your company’s personality and being willing to show that personality to the world, you prove to your employees that you are committed to, and unashamed of, the culture you have created. By doing this, your employees will feel more connected to the company and will enjoy a sense of pride in the organization that they’re part of. This allows them to be comfortable in speaking about the company without fear that they will saying something contrary to what the “marketing engine” is putting out there. By being true to your personality, you encourage every employee to become an advocate for your message in a way that is genuine and real.

Website designs with personality: A gallery

To show just how effective designing with personality can be, let’s take a look at a few examples of companies that have truly embraced these principles and wear their brand’s personality on their sleeves (or screens, as the case may be).

Northfield Savings Bank

Banking websites are probably the last ones you’d associate with personality or fun, but the site for Northfield Savings Bank uses both expertly on their site to set their institution apart. From their playful “flying pig” logo to their story about those flying pigs, the website demonstrates unequivocally that this is no ordinary bank. For a customer who’s looking for a personal touch in their local bank – as opposed to a massive, faceless global institution – this site is surely a breath of fresh air.

Wishbone

Non‐profit organizations are committed to their missions. This is good, but too often that dedication and seriousness translates into a boring, and therefore unmemorable, approach on their website. Wishbone is an organization that sends “at-risk high school students to after school and summer programs.” The website certainly shows their passion for that mission, but it does so through the use of real photos of and personal stories from the students as well as fun animations that illustrate their process, which creates a very enjoyable, and ultimately very memorable, user experience.

Dollar Shave Club

Normally, a “memorable” shaving experience is a bad thing, because it likely means something went horribly wrong. But DollarShaveClub.com offers a very memorable (and good) experience, welcoming new visitors with a wonderful and humorous video and carrying this playful approach throughout their entire site. Rather than spending big bucks on endorsements from pro athletes or celebrities and presenting a high‐tech feel like their competitors do, Dollar Shave Club opts for a very real-world feel with textures of wood and torn paper. Compare those earthy textures and their comedic tone with Gillette, for example, and you’ll see just how starkly different this approach is. In this case, doing something different has not only created a memorable experience, but one that also promotes sharing. Dozens of friends and colleagues sent me the link to Dollar Shave Club’s website after it went viral. So while this fun and kitschy approach may not be right for everyone who buys razors, it has captured the attention of many who not only appreciate its quirkiness but also happily share their love of the brand with others in their social circles. Need more proof? Just compare the two companies’ videos on YouTube. As of this writing, Dollar Shave Club’s "Our Blades Are F***ing Great" video is approaching 5 million views while Gillette’s “Masters of Style” video, featuring celebrities Andre 3000, Adrien Brody and Gale Garcia Bernal, has yet to cross the quarter-million mark.

MailChimp

MailChimp’s lead user experience designer Aarron Walter has been touting the benefits of adding emotion and personality to websites for some time through his writing and speaking engagements, and that approach is very evident throughout the entire experience of MailChimp.com. Compare their site, which is loaded with unique personality, to other email marketing providers such as Constant Contact, Emma or VerticalResponse, and you will see the difference right away. Those email marketing providers, and many others you will find, all employ a very similar approach on their website – one that quickly becomes unexciting and forgettable. Go to the MailChimp website, however, and the giant illustration of company mascot Freddie von Chimpenheimer IV is one that’s sure to make a lasting impression. Delve still deeper into the site, and into their service, and you will discover just how unique MailChimp is – because anyone that can make email marketing enjoyable is definitely doing something right!

Run For Your Lives

My father and my wife are both runners, so I’ve seen my share of websites for road races. When I heard about the Run For Your Lives Race, which is part running race and part obstacle course – all while hordes of mindless zombies chase after you to try to turn you into one of them – I knew I had to check out their website. The race itself is certainly memorable, as anyone who has run it will surely tell you, and the organizers made sure that the same approach was used on the website. From dark textures and visuals used to complement the race’s zombie theme, to promotions like their contest to “win an all‐expense-paid funeral,” the site is perfectly on-brand, and like Dollar Shave Club, its unique approach promotes viral sharing. No matter how many race websites you’ve visited before, I guarantee you’ve never seen one like this, and you won’t soon forget it!

GE

Humor and fun and zombies are not the only ways to make a lasting impression on website visitors. GE has created an incredibly memorable experience on their site by focusing not only on the company’s technology and innovations but also on the people behind the brand and the impact they’re making in the real world. Through powerful imagery, videos and personal stories, they have put a very human face on what could easily be a brand devoid of any type of emotional connection. In the process, they show that their company stands for much more than what they do or the products and services they offer.

Be memorable. Be yourself.

Be true to your company’s personality and embrace what makes you unique. Stand boldly apart from the crowd and make a lasting impression knowing that your message may turn away some customers that aren’t really a good fit anyway, but it will also help you attract more of the ones that are right for you. Or, to borrow the wise words of renowned business expert Dr. Seuss: “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who matter don’t mind and those who mind don’t matter.”

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The "No Duhs" of Social Media

Ah social media. The latest golden goose to grace our world with promises of untold riches, a slimmer waistline and the perfect tan. The one every girl wants to go home with and every dude wants to be. The prom queen, the rock star and the cult leader all in one. Getting the picture yet? If you listen to the hype, social media is the answer to all that ails you and your company. It will increase your sales, touches and impressions by 800%...if only we could figure out how it all works. Truth be told, so much of what’s happening in social media is simply the infiltration of the same sheisty individuals who have previously occupied the world of infomercials and used car lots. If I had a dollar for every time that a “social media expert” followed me on Twitter, I wouldn’t have written this article, since I’d be chilling in Hawaii as the youngest retiree in the islands. But I’m not, so here we are. Given the omnipresence of social media these days, surely there’s something to it, right? The answer is yes, but it’s often light-years away from the hype and hyperbole. So how do you drill down to the real benefits of social media? You get back to basics. Hence the “no duhs.” There aren’t any quick fixes to make social media work for you. That’s why I don’t consider myself an expert in the field. I’m a social media grunt. I get in the trenches and get the work done, and that’s ultimately where you’ll find success. Without any further ado, the “no duhs” of your social media strategy:

Know your purpose

Before you ever set foot in the shared space of social media, you absolutely have to establish why you’re doing it:

• What’s brought you to this point?
• Do you have a specific product or line of products that you’re trying to sell?
• What’s your brand?
• What’s your mission statement?
• How have you presented yourself in other media up to this point?
• What do you expect to achieve?

Get the idea? Before you spin your wheels creating a Facebook page, setting up a Twitter account, broadcasting via a YouTube channel or utilizing whatever else pops up on the scene in the future, you need to have a good grasp of what you or your company hopes to accomplish. Define your expectations before you take the plunge.

Learn the platforms

Not all social media outlets are created equal. This may be the biggest “no duh” statement of all, but you can’t do the same things on Facebook that you can do on Twitter. You can’t run a YouTube channel the same way you create a music profile on MySpace. Do your homework. Each of these sites is like visiting a new country, or at least driving across the border to a new state. Each one does things just a little bit differently. Not all social media outlets are created equal.For example, I love good southern barbecue. For those of you who know BBQ, you know that I just made a sweeping generalization. What kind of southern BBQ? North Carolina or Kentucky? Western Carolina or Eastern Carolina? The same is true of social media. There are shades and variations of capabilities and opportunities, so you have to know what you’re dealing with before you can properly engage. Learn the culture of each of the various social media platforms. This will help you make good decisions about where to make your presence known and give you the understanding to make your efforts more effective. Facebook might be a great place for you to create a page about your products or services, while Twitter could be a waste of your time unless you have solid, regular bites of news and information to share.

Know your audience

This goes hand-in-hand with familiarizing yourself with the social media platforms and knowing your purpose. In the same way that you need to learn the culture, you also need to learn the language. When I moved to France as a teenager, it was one thing to pick up on the fact that there was a good bus system (culture) but quite another to figure out how to purchase tickets to ride across town (language). Learn who your audience is and how they communicate. Don’t assume that they’ll understand the jargon that you and your coworkers use to discuss your products or services. If you try using that lingo without some form of translation, you’ll end up alienating the very people you want to reach.

Be authentic

Of all the “no duhs,” this is probably the most self-explanatory. Just be real. Be real about your identity as a representative of a company; be real about the products and services that you provide. Don’t oversell or overhype who you are and what you offer. People can see through that, especially in the world of social media. It’s generally very easy to pick up on who’s legit and who’s not.

Be patient

This really gets back to the root of setting expectations. Unless you’re marketing the next iPhone or the next search engine (and good luck with that if you are), chances are you’re not going to have thousands or millions of people beating a path to become your fan on Facebook. It’ll take time for your company ad to get some traction on YouTube. Growing your Twitter following won’t happen overnight, unless you’re Ashton Kutcher. And honestly, does the world need another Ashton? Be realistic, and let your presence on these sites develop organically. Much like the language/country analogy, it takes time to get acclimated to a new culture and to become more effective at communicating according to the social norms of that culture.

Have fun

Admittedly, this final ”no duh” might seem a little goofy. But let’s be honest. Any time someone comes in with plans to formalize a previously underground environment (i.e. big business entering the world of Facebook), there can be a vibe of killing the party. Social media has taken over our lives for one very good reason: It’s fun! Take the time to invest in the lives of others.It’s fun to play silly games that measure your brain capacity versus your friends’. It’s fun to discover a new band or movie that your friends haven't heard about yet. It’s fun to retweet a good joke from a comedian you like. It’s fun (usually) to reconnect with old friends after years of being out of touch. Social media is, at heart, social. It’s meant to connect people. We form and build relationships (whether in person or online) because it brings joy and meaning to our lives, so don’t let the business of doing business via social networking sites rob you of that. Take the time to invest in the lives of others, and the riches that you reap will be far greater than can be measured in balance sheets and ROI calculations. By the way, if you’re just not a very social person, that’s all well and good. But maybe you shouldn’t be the one managing your company’s social media efforts. Seek out those who truly enjoy the medium, and allow them the time and space to explore the various “countries” of social media. Let them learn the languages and the cultures that go with each. Final word? A successful social media strategy depends on good old-fashioned hard work and common sense. Stay alert, and stay engaged.

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